Arrows of Rain

Originally published in Heineman's prestigious "African Writers Series," this is Arrows'first publication in the US. Coming only months after the whirlwind of publicity for Foreign Gods, Inc., we expect continued attention for Okey Ndibe as a major new voice in world literature. Set in a fictitious post-colonial African nation, the discovery of the body of a drowned prostitute leads to an exploration of the conflict between an individual and the modern African state. A gripping study of truth, silence and the abuse of power. A young woman runs into the sea and drowns. The last man who spoke to her, a curious individual known as Bukuru, is asked to account for her suicide. His shocking revelations land him in court. Alone and undefended, Bukuru has to calculate the cost of silence in the face of stories which must be told. Both humorous and poignant, Arrows of Rain dramatises the relationship between an individual and the modern African state. Okey Ndibe examines the erosion of moral insight in both public and private life, drawing out the complex factors behind the near-collapse of a nation. Foreign Gods, Inc. garnered massive international coverage during its hardcover release, including reviews in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and interviews with the BBC News Africa, BBC World Service, and Radio Liberia. Okey is a well-connected, influential author; when he was detained in Nigeria in 2011 for journalism exposing government corruption, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka wrote in his defense. He was also an associate of the late Chinua Achebe, who first brought him to the US to edit African Commentary magazine. "First rate fiction."--John Edgar Wideman, author ofPhiladelphia Fire "A blueprint for the second generation of African novelists."-- Ernest Emenyonu, author of Tales of Our Motherland "An ambitious and brave first novel...[that] could jump start the moral political mission of serious African literature begun so well by Ousmane, Ngugi, and the immortal Achebe."--Michael Ekwueme Thelwell, author of The Harder They Come Praise for Foreign Gods, Inc. "Razor-sharp."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times "We clearly have a fresh talent at work here. It is quite a while since I sensed creative promise on this level."--Wole Soyinka, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Author Bio: Okey Ndibe teaches African and African Diaspora literatures at Brown University. He earned MFA and PhD degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has taught at Connecticut College, Bard College, Trinity College, and the University of Lagos (as a Fulbright scholar). He is also the author of Foreign Gods, Inc. and has served on the editorial board of Hartford Courant where his essays won national and state awards. He lives in West Hartford, CT, with his wife, Sheri, and their three children. Publicity and Marketing National media campaign. Never before published in the North America, Okey Ndibe's acclaimed first novel is here available for the first time. With the critical success of FOREIGN GODS, INC. we expect to see continued interest in this important writer's work.

About the Author :
Okey Ndibe, author of the novels Arrows of Rain and Foreign Gods, Inc., teaches African literature and African diaspora literature at Brown University. He earned an MFA and PhD from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and has taught at Connecticut College, Bard College-Simon's Rock, Trinity College (Connecticut), and the University of Lagos (as a Fulbright scholar). He also served on the editorial board of the Hartford Courant, where his essays won national and state awards. Peter Jay Fernandez is an accomplished audiobook narrator who has won three AudioFile Earphones Awards and an Audie Award in 2009. He has also appeared on television, film, and stage. His appearances include roles in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and the musical Thunder Knocking on the Door.

Review :

"Arrows of Rain is Greek tragedy...It serves as a powerful reminder that the imprint of history--its machinations and cultural usurpations, its elevations and denigrations--is not merely on the subsequent chronicle but on subsequent individual souls as well."

"A fascinating and important story--one that truly must be told."

"Highly evocative."

"Ndibe is a gifted writer and an adept storyteller, who clearly exults in the telling."

"Peter Jay Fernandez is an excellent choice as narrator of a book with mostly male characters...Fernandez's pitch and pace authentically capture the rhythms of accented English from the African continent. He maintains the listener's interest in the twists and turns of Bukuru's trial and balances between inner monologues and scenes of extended dialogue with multiple speakers. This is an exploration of the difficulties in obtaining justice as well as gender and class equality in modern-day Africa."

"Smart and often deftly written, a parable of power and the humanity it strips away...Arrows of Rain remains a novel of resistance--if not political resistance, exactly, then resistance at the level of the soul."

"The greatest villain in Okey Ndibe's Arrows of Rain is silence."

"This haunting work about the costs of silence shows that Nbide, who was mentored by the towering Chinua Achebe, belongs in the pantheon of contemporary African-born writers."

"What do you do, Ndibe asks, when you are faced with injustice and total corruption? When to speak will very likely mean your end? A Kafkaesque, imaginative novel of great necessity and power."